Manchester City are furious with the FA after it fined Bacary Sagna £40,000 for a controversial Instagram post in which he questioned the integrity of referee Lee Mason after the 2-1 win over Burnley on January 2.
The FA confirmed yesterday that the City right back had been given the substantial fine and warned about his future conduct after he was found guilty of breaking rule E3(1) regarding public comments about officials.
The rule says that players or managers cannot question the integrity of a match official or imply bias.
While there is no doubt that Sagna can afford to pay the fine — he is believed to earn about £120,000 per week — City were still shocked by the severity of the punishment and it is understood that the club plan to appeal against it. Sagna claimed that Mason’s performance had been akin to that of a 12th man for Sean Dyche’s Burnley team. The full back wrote: “10 against 12 . . . but still fighting and winning as a team #youfreetothinkwhateveryouwant.”
Sagna apologised and removed the “10 against 12” part of the post, but the FA still decided to fine him after a review by an independent commission, which concluded that the 33-year-old had questioned the referee’s impartiality. The FA pointed out that the size of the fine is determined by a number of factors, including the player’s wages and whether he showed enough contrition in light of the incident.
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